Monday, February 2, 2009

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse

We were really planning on eating leftovers for dinner when Kathy asked us to join her for dinner, and I hadn't met Kathy yet, so we did that.

Kathy took us to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse in Cupertino. It wasn't even fifteen minutes from our place, so it worked out quite well. The place was packed, and Kathy was surprised we were able to find parking and not have to valet. She had also called ahead and put us on the list at least half an hour before we got there, and there was another half hour wait when we arrived. Those who entered the same time were told a wait-time of an hour! We went to scope out the bar, and a table became available, so we grabbed it (very lucky!). Jonathan tried the Piranha Pale Ale, but I forgot to ask how he liked it. Kathy said pretty much everything was good there except the jambalaya (and I'm glad she told us that, since we're big into New Orleans cuisine and have high expectations in that area). She highly recommended the side salads, so Jonathan tried the caesar and I had the house with honey mustard. They were pretty good, and a good value for $2.95 each (salads and raw veggies are expensive out here if you haven't heard me mention that before). Jonathan and Kathy split a deep-dish pizza ("BJ's Favorite") with meatballs, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, olives, onions, and tomatoes. It also had a few bites of buffalo chicken for some reason, LoL. While he noted that it wasn't Uno's, it was still a good pizza. I was overwhelmed by the size of the menu, and although I wanted to try their pizza (it seems to be what they're known for), I decided to have something else since there was already pizza waiting in the fridge from the night before. So, I chose the Blackened Chicken Potato. Think McAlister's, but the potato wasn't as big. Toppings included blackened chicken breast strips, red peppers, green onions, jack and cheddar cheeses, and ALFREDO SAUCE. At first I was a bit skeptical, but the alfredo turned out to be a fantastic topping. As is the usual with a stuffed potato, I was only able to eat half of it (and thus added to the collection of leftovers in the fridge), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, Kathy mentioned that there are very few places around that serve potatoes as a side. We had noticed this, but figured we just must be hitting places that didn't do potatoes. Me and my spud-loving self are kinda sad, and I'm not sure how to overcome the situation just yet. (We ran into a similar dilemma last weekend when there were no boxed mashed potatoes at Costco or Target.) Had we been hungrier, we would have gotten dessert. They have a giant cookie topped with ice cream (a Pizookie) that they're known for, but we'll have to get it another time. And although it was a delicious place to go, I don't know if I'd want to wait an hour. But if I can really just call ahead an hour early and waltz in, that'd be worth it. Oh, and if you were wondering, it was actually a very quiet restaurant when you consider the number of people in there and the set-up of the place.

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